. In modern practice, the letters
Beth,
Daleth,
He,
Heth,
Yud and
Quf (
mnemonic: BeDeQ-ChaYaH ) have one tag. The letters
Gimel,
Zayin,
Tet,
Nun,
Ayin,
Tzadi and
Shin (mnemonic: Sha´ATNeZ-GaTz ), as far back as Talmudic times, have 3 tags. Some manuscripts feature embellished on the top line of each column and some also on all occurrences of the
Tetragrammaton other than those prefixed with a
lamed.
Sefer Tagin and the V'ahavta, with tagin
decorations. The Tetragrammaton, which occurs multiple times, receives tagin
on the yodh and he'' letters. , showing
tagin decorations on the Hebrew letters. The passage is Numbers 18:27–30. This work, attributed to
Rabbi Akiva but not mentioned until at least the 9th century, lays out 1960 places where modified tagin or letter forms occur in a
Torah scroll. In it, the locations of letters which receive a number of tagin which differs from the ''sha'atnez gatz
tradition, e.g. the initial beit of bereshith'' in having 4 tagin as opposed to the usual 1 and the instances of aleph which bear 7 tagin apiece. According to this work, each occurrence of each letter is to be written with between 0 and 7 tagin, as delineated in the lists contained therein.
Maimonides This tradition, predating the versification of the Torah text, contains some instruction wherein it is difficult to know what verses are being referenced, thus in the 12th century,
Maimonides ruled that though a scribe should do his utmost to incorporate all of the elements of this tradition, called
otiyyot meshunot (strange letters), however if they are omitted, whether in full or in part, the scroll would not be ruled as
pasul (invalid). == Interpretation ==